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| Thursday, 6 September 2018, 19:00 HKT/SGT | |
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Source: HKTDC | |
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| Hong Kong Infrastructure Sectors Explore ASEAN Opportunities |
HONG KONG, Sept 6, 2018 - (ACN Newswire) - Rapid economic growth in Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries drives infrastructure development and urban planning, bringing enormous opportunities to related professional services - including construction, urban planning, engineering and city management. To help Hong Kong's infrastructure development services sectors grasp these opportunities, HKTDC has organised a "Building for the Future" promotion in Malaysia for the first time, bringing a delegation to Kuala Lumpur from 4-7 Sept.
 | | The "Building for the Future" mission calls on the local Ministry of Transport, including Minister of Transport Loke Siew Fook (7th from L), to explore collaboration opportunities between Hong Kong and Malaysia. |
 | | The "Building for the Future" promotion is being held in Malaysia for the first time, with the highlighted "Hong Kong Forum on Urban Development" attracting more than 400 representatives from Malaysian government departments and businesses today. |
 | | Peter Wong, Regional Director of Southeast Asia and South Asia, HKTDC, says in his welcoming remarks at the forum that Hong Kong is an ideal springboard for Malaysian companies looking to expand into global markets. |
 | | The mission also visits the award-winning integrated development Kajang 2. Tan Sri Datuk Eddy Chen Lok Loi, MKH Berhad's group managing director introduced the architectural concept and planning of their projects. |
Through various events including a forum, business matching sessions and site visits, the promotion gives Malaysian and Hong Kong companies a comprehensive platform to explore infrastructure and urban development partnership opportunities.
The delegation, led by Nicholas Ho, Deputy Managing Director of Ho & Partners (hpa), comprises 13 delegates from a wide range of professional sectors including urban planning, building and landscape design, surveying, real-estate development, environmental engineering and facilities, architectural consultancy and management, property management and interior design.
Close Hong Kong-Malaysia Economic Ties
The three-day mission covers a wide range of events, with the "Hong Kong Forum on Urban Development" held today being the highlight. The forum aimed to introduce the strengths of Hong Kong's infrastructure development services to Malaysia's government and enterprises, and to strengthen the cooperation between Hong Kong and Malaysia in urban construction. Malaysian government departments and businesses warmly welcomed the forum, which attracted more than 400 representatives.
"Asia's economy is showing great momentum. As a major ASEAN country, Malaysia has seen rapid infrastructure and urban development in recent years," Peter Wong, Regional Director of Southeast Asia and South Asia, HKTDC, said in his welcoming remarks at the forum. "Hong Kong and Malaysia have a strong economic relationship. With our unique strengths in internationalisation, Hong Kong has long been an ideal springboard for Malaysian companies looking to expand into global markets.
"Hong Kong possesses flourishing infrastructure and real-estate industries, with advantages in such sectors as project management, architectural engineering design and urban planning, as well as experienced industry talents who think globally and creatively. For many years, Hong Kong has been providing quality services for Southeast Asian countries, and we will continue to be the platform for ASEAN infrastructure collaboration projects."
With the Free Trade Agreement between ASEAN and Hong Kong signed late last year, Mr Wong believed Hong Kong's infrastructure and urban planning industries would be able to play to their strengths and participate more actively in urban development projects in Malaysia. He added the "Building for the Future" promotion would create more opportunities for collaboration between Malaysia and Hong Kong.
Forum Highlights Hong Kong Strengths
In recent years, many large-scale infrastructure projects have been unveiled in Malaysia and the country's government has also released bills for future urban transport planning and public-private-partnership (PPP) construction development, making Malaysia one of the most rapidly urbanising ASEAN countries. According to the Infrastructure Intelligence Center (IIC), Malaysia's infrastructure construction market is projected to reach US$21.8 billion by 2021, indicating great demand for infrastructure- and urbanisation-related services.
The Hong Kong Forum on Urban Development focused on three topical themes - smart city, modern city development and urban planning, and architecture design. With Malaysia pushing forward its infrastructure construction and urbanisation, demand for related services is rising. To facilitate the exchange between Malaysian and Hong Kong companies, the plenary session featured a number of internationally renowned Hong Kong construction and engineering companies - including hpa, AECOM and Big Data Architect Limited - which discussed smart-city development, sustainable urban development as well as ways to utilise big data for city development.
At the thematic session, executives from ARUP, Sino Group and URBANPROJECTS shared success cases on creating an efficient modern city, urban redevelopment and architecture design. They talked about ways to create unique architectural styles in modern city design and explored opportunities for collaboration between Malaysia and Hong Kong in urban development.
The forum also featured business-matching sessions for Malaysian enterprises to have one-on-one meetings with Hong Kong delegates to explore potential opportunities and exchange ideas about Malaysia's infrastructure and urban construction projects.
Infrastructure Financing
Infrastructure construction and urbanisation require huge investments. As an international financial centre with strong infrastructure financing capability, Hong Kong can provide Malaysian companies with a reliable platform for fund-raising, as well as financing arrangements and services that suit their needs. A networking luncheon was organised after the forum, with Richard Hu - who represents the Financial Services Development Council, Hong Kong and is Head and Managing Director of Everbright Overseas Infrastructure Investment Fund, China Everbright Limited - discussing possible financial collaboration between Malaysia and Hong Kong in city development, especially how Hong Kong companies could support Malaysian development projects in terms of funding, drawing on their strengths in both infrastructure construction and finance.
Infrastructure Site Visits in Kuala Lumpur
The HKTDC also led the mission to meet Malaysian companies and government officials, and to visit prominent infrastructure and urban development sites in Malaysia. The mission called on the local Ministry of Transport and Minister of Transport Loke Siew Fook to explore the collaboration opportunities between Hong Kong and Malaysia. They also visited different local infrastructure and property development corporates, including infrastructure developer YTL Corporation Berhad, real-estate group MKH Berhad and the well-established property developer Sunway Group. The mission also visited the award-winning integrated development Kajang 2.
Campaign's Next Destination: Guangzhou
The HKTDC launched the "Building for the Future" promotional campaign in 2015, leading Hong Kong urban development services missions to visit various cities on the Chinese mainland, including Nanjing and Changzhou in Jiangsu province, Jinan and Jining in Shandong province and Fuzhou and Xiamen in Fujian province. It is the first time the campaign has run in an ASEAN country. More promotions will be organised under the campaign to highlight Hong Kong's strengths in infrastructure and urban construction services. The next promotion is scheduled to be held in March 2019 in Guangzhou, focusing on smart-city technology and sustainable and integrated urban development in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Bay Area.
Photo download: https://bit.ly/2PKnJ5H
Contact:
HKTDC Communications and Public Affairs Department
Christine Kam, T: +852 2584 4514, E: christine.kam@hktdc.org
Topic: Press release summary
Source: HKTDC
Sectors: Daily Finance, Daily News, ASEAN, Local Biz, Government
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From the Asia Corporate News Network
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